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Internet Starts Coming Back In Iran After Months-Long Blackout

An anonymous reader quotes a report from the BBC: Internet access has started to be restored in Iran after being cut off almost three months ago, the country's first vice-president has said. "The first step toward free and regulated access to cyberspace has been taken," Mohammad Reza Aref wrote on X on Tuesday. Internet monitoring groups Netblocks and Kentik reported "partial" restoration around 13:00 GMT, though the latter warned most networks were still down.

The Iranian government cut internet access following the launch of US and Israeli attacks on February 28. Officials suggested the aim was to prevent surveillance, espionage and cyber-attacks. It is one of the longest-running national internet shutdowns ever recorded worldwide. A content creator from Tehran told the BBC that he had been able to connect to the internet using his home WiFi on Tuesday. "The main point is, some of my income will come back," he said.

Netblocks said it was unclear whether the internet return would be sustained, and told the BBC it was consistent with what it had seen when previous blackouts were lifted -- where restoration could take hours. "Access is not universally back to its original state, with some regional variation," said the global internet tracker's research director Isik Mater on Tuesday. She added that there were signs of "more extensive filtering" than prior to January -- when a similar blackout was imposed during the regime's deadly crackdown on anti-government protests -- "including additional restrictions to messaging apps like WhatsApp."

The Guardian

Latest news, sport, business, comment, analysis and reviews from the Guardian, the world's leading liberal voice

Ukraine war briefing: Shoot down drones yourself, Russia tells its banks

Central bank and commercial institutions would arm themselves under new law; anger at UN over Russian threats to embassies. What we know on day 1,554

The Russian government has told top banks including its federal reserve that they should shoot down Ukrainian drones themselves, as well as handling the costs. It comes as Moscow struggles to defend key sites on its vast territory against Ukrainian attacks that have forced Russia to cluster its air defence in some areas, including Moscow, leaving it spread extremely thin or nonexistent elsewhere. Kyiv’s forces have targeted infrastructure and equipment within Russia used to either carry out or fund the war – from ships, planes and airfields to oil refineries, depots and pipelines, natural gas networks and factories that make military electronics and explosives.

Reuters reports that the Russian parliament has passed a law allowing the banks including Russia’s biggest, Sberbank, and other financial institutions to operate defence systems and arm staff against drones without special forces involvement. They would handle the cost themselves, Anatoly Aksakov, the head of the State Duma’s financial committee, was quoted as saying by the RBC news outlet. Alexander Shokhin, head of Russia’s most powerful business lobby, on Monday told Vladimir Putin that companies were prepared to buy heavier weapons and electronic systems to defend themselves against drone attacks.

Almost 50 countries at the United Nations have condemned what they said were “threats by Russia to diplomatic institutions and embassies in Kyiv”. “This is something which we cannot accept,” said a joint statement signed by European countries, Japan, South Korea and others. The EU also lashed out, saying it had no plans to move its staff. Germany and Norway summoned Russia’s ambassadors to deliver reprimands.

Russia announced on Monday that it had started a campaign of “systematic” strikes on Kyiv that would target the Ukrainian capital’s “decision-making centres” and urged foreign citizens and diplomats “to leave the city as soon as possible”, as well as for Kyiv residents to avoid public buildings. Ukraine has called the threats “blackmail” and encouraged its allies to ignore the warning, which they largely have.

The Czech Republic’s initiative to arrange large-calibre ammunition supplies to Ukraine has contracts to deliver around a million rounds in 2026, the Czech defence ministry has announced. Officials said it delivered about 1.5m rounds in 2024 and 1.8m last year. It came close to cancellation when the new Czech prime minister, Andrej Babis, and his anti-Ukrainian partners entered government together in December 2024, but he kept the project running under pressure from foreign allies. The Czech president, Petr Pavel, is a staunch supporter of Ukraine and its defence against Russian aggression.

The ammunition initiative matches foreign donor countries, such as Denmark, the Netherlands, Germany and others, together with Czech arms traders seeking supplies from around the world. Funding has also come from the yield on frozen Russian assets provided by the European Commission. The ministry said financing of “nearly €1bn euros” had been secured so far this year. The amount this year may still rise if more donors deliver funding, the ministry added, or if Ukraine uses funds from the EU’s €90bn loan for Kyiv. Babis has rejected any further Czech financial contribution, which had been a small fraction of the overall amount but had symbolic value.

2026-05-27 00:49:49

Pressure review – Andrew Scott and Brendan Fraser can’t save lower-tier D-day drama

A behind-the-scenes second world war drama focused on the importance of weather is too stodgy and repetitive to work as anything but a so-so TV movie

In a world of increasingly segmented audiences, the new movie Pressure cleverly brings together two adjacent demographics: weather dads and history dads. Those designations are honorifics, not gender-essentialist; spiritually dad-curious people of all ages (but, let’s be real: mostly over 50) may be interested in a behind-the-scenes story set in the last few days leading up to the allied invasion of Normandy in June 1944. Because this is the largest-scale seaborne invasion ever mounted, weather is a major factor, and the movie follows military higher-ups as they work around the clock trying to figure out whether a possible incoming storm will create unfavorable or impossible conditions.

To put it in contemporary terms, this is essentially a movie about Dwight Eisenhower (Brendan Fraser) nervously refreshing his weather app to see if he needs to change his upcoming plans. The weather app is played by Andrew Scott. Scott’s actual character is James Stagg, a somewhat brusque and chilly Scotsman brought in to the D-day planning as the operation’s chief meteorological officer. Stagg quickly clashes with the American Irving Krick (Chris Messina), who knows that D-day is crucial and time is of the essence – and is therefore bullish about (selectively) using past data to “predict” that the storms will quickly pass. Stagg’s analysis is far less optimistic. Anyone who has held tickets to a forecast-dependent outdoor concert will relate.

2026-05-27 00:45:13

Paddington 4: Armando Iannucci to write bear’s next movie with Thick of It and Veep cowriter

Fourth Paddington film will be written by Iannucci and Simon Blackwell, who wrote with Iannucci on The Thick of It, In The Loop and Veep

Paddington is about to develop a particularly hard stare, with The Thick of It and Veep creator Armando Iannucci set to write the bear’s next cinematic adventure.

Variety reported on Tuesday that the fourth Paddington film will be written by Iannucci and his longtime collaborator Simon Blackwell, who wrote with Iannucci on The Thick of It, In The Loop and Veep.

2026-05-27 00:34:53